by Thaddeus Flint
It was Deja-Vu all over again as townspeople from New Lebanon met Monday night to discuss a possible sidewalk project that seems to have taken on a life of its own.[private]“We are trying to gauge what the public would like to do with this project,” Town Supervisor Colleen Teal told a smaller than expected turnout of residents. The last time these meetings took place, in March and May of 2013, it was standing room only at both the Town Hall and the New Lebanon High School. The weather certainly didn’t help–it was the most perfect of perfect summer’s nights–and many are away enjoying vacations, but timing, it turns out, is of the essence.
While the project is basically the same as it was three years ago, the premise that New York State and the Federal Government are looking to help the Town expand its walkability through generous funding—a premise many in New Lebanon were skeptical of at the time—seems to have taken on a new light. Or darkness. After being tucked away and basically forgotten after profuse backlash from residents against the sidewalks, the plan has come back looking to many like a shakedown for money because somebody didn’t quite read the fine print up to the end.
Back in 2013, the sidewalk plan option (there were four options) the Town Board at that time voted to accept was the one design firm Creighton Manning estimated at $1.5 million. This was Option 2 which would have run from Lover’s Lane to the High School. The Feds were going to pay around 80% of Option 2, NY State and Columbia County another 15%, leaving the taxpayers of the New Lebanon with a bill for $75,000 for the remaining 5%.
It’s 2016 now and Option 2 is a few binders of documents on a shelf somewhere. The cost for this paper boondoggle–so far– is $119,880.60, of which the taxpayers of New Lebanon have contributed $34,475.40. New York State taxpayers paid $5,000. United States taxpayers paid $80,4015.20. Most New Lebanon residents are actually lucky members of all three of these tax entities so they are out of pocket even more. Based on the previous estimates of Creighton Manning, however, there should only be about $40,000 left to pay and New Lebanon would have their sidewalk.
As pretty much everyone in New Lebanon knows, there is no sidewalk. Well, except the one the graduating High School Seniors managed to build in front of their building at almost negligible cost year after year as a memorial to their days of toil in the NLCSD before they ran out of room. But that doesn’t count.
What counts is the NYSDOT wants a sidewalk or it wants its money back.
Also, for some reason, NYSDOT wants a decision out of the Town by September 2016 on what they intend to do.
There are two new options. New Option 1 is to move forward with the sidewalk plan. This would be a much shorter plan and only run from the Valley Plaza and EZ Mart property line to Tilden Road. If this option is chosen NYSDOT would expect the Town to acquire one easement and complete the new designs by September 2017. The estimated cost for this would be $13,000. New Lebanon then would have 20 years to build the sidewalks.
New Option 2 is New Lebanon can do nothing, which is what they were doing all along since everyone thought that the sidewalk project had been dropped. If the Town chooses this option it will have to pay back $80,4015.20 to the Feds and the $5,000 to New York State. For this they get to keep the binder with 2013 Option 2 in it.
The new estimated cost for the mini-project would be $360,000. Or maybe it’s $800,000. Nobody seems to know for sure.
“It’s a big difference,” said Teal who wondered why she was still getting numbers in 2012 dollars.
Councilman Kevin Smith also wondered what would happen if the Town did build the sidewalks in the future and then find that the Federal government no longer had the money to pay them back. “There is no guarantee that in twenty years these grants will still be there,” he said.
The New Option 1 estimate also seems rather low. However NYSDOT seems to think that new plans can be drawn up and acquisition of needed property can all be done for the low, low price of $13,000. This assumes that only one easement is needed and the owners, Tilden Plaza, are happy accepting certainly no more than $13,000 for the land needed to build the sidewalks. Presumably lawyers and surveying and things like that that would be budgeted from whatever was left over from that $13,000.
Resident Ed Godfrey said he took a look at the plans and the numbers don’t seem to add up. The sheer number of signs, poles, and other obstruction to be moved will involve a great of deal of planning to move them. Trees, both new and old, will be lost or have to be re-planted. He also believes that other property lines will fall into the right-of-way needed to put in the sidewalks. Tilden Plaza alone could lose 18 parking spots.
Even if there were only one land owner—Tilden Plaza—to deal with, the negotiations need to be completed by 2017. If that’s not done the Town is supposed to pay the $95,000 back. If the land owner declines, the property could be taken though eminent domain. But with the right lawyers and enough money, it would seem that the 2017 deadline might be difficult to be met.
“I recommend that somebody goes back through and see if we can’t recoup the money from the people responsible for spending this money without letting us know we had to spend it” said resident and Highway Superintendent Jeff Winestock. This would seem to be former Town Supervisor Mike Benson and former Councilmen Doug Clark, K.B. Chittenden and Bruce Baldwin who voted in favor of going forward with the project back in May of 2013. Former Councilman Matt Larabee was the sole member of that Board to vote against the Old Option 2 sidewalk project.
“I’m not joking,” added Winestock, in case anyone thought he was joking.
About half of the twenty or so residents in attendance Monday were either in favor of the sidewalks or at least didn’t want to squander the money already spent by walking away from the project and getting nothing but a bill and a binder.
Resident Bruce Shenker said the current plan, and even the previous one, doesn’t go far enough. Sidewalks should be on both sides of the street and there should be crosswalks to get from one side to the other. “We need to go all the way,” he said.
“It’s bass-ackwards,” agreed resident Christine Dreyfus, that there would be no safe way to get from one side of the road to the other safely.
Fiona Lally of Grow The Valley said that sidewalks are “one of the most powerful tools a Town has.” If New Lebanon wants to grow as a Town it’s going to need to think toward the future. Part of that would involve working toward slowing the traffic going through New Lebanon. “It’s not a Town,” Lally said. “ It’s a highway with businesses on each side. We need to create a Town.”
Creating a Town in New Lebanon, it turns out, won’t be as easy as building a few hundred yards of sidewalk.
“We have a bigger issue than just sidewalks if we are looking to grow businesses,” said Teal. Around 40% of businesses and properties in the area of the proposed sidewalk have borderline-failing, or failing, septic systems. New Lebanon lacks both municipal water and sewer lines. “So we could put in as many sidewalks as we want, but we have bigger problems. We can’t bring in businesses to properties that can’t handle businesses.”
The discussion will continue at a second public hearing on the matter Thursday, August 11 at 7 pm at the High School, when it will be Deja-Vu all over again, all over again.[/private]